Obituary: BRADSHAW, ELMA

Published: Sunday, July 10 2011 12:00 a.m. MDT

Elma S. Bradshaw 1/22/1922 ~ 7/6/2011
As I look back on my life, I am amazed that I've been able to do so many things I never thought possible, considering my humble beginnings.I was born January 22, 1922, the fourth child and only daughter of Thomas Dellano and Fannie Belle (Mower) Singleton. I feel greatly blessed to have had honest, hard-working, loving parents who encouraged and helped me develop artistic and musical talents. They also gave me three special older brothers to love and enjoy: Kenneth Dellano, Lavelle, and Wayne. My parents and brothers have all preceded me in death, but since I have absolute faith in the immortality of the human soul, I look forward to a joyous reunion with them as I die. I was educated in American Fork schools, attended LDS Seminary. After high school and seminary graduation, I worked as a dental assistant in my home town, while continuing a study of art through correspondence courses. In 1942, because of World War II and my patriotic feelings, I took a job at the Remington Arms Plant as a 35-mm-weapons inspector and moved to Salt Lake City to be closer to work. In 1943 I luckily obtained work as an advertising artist at Auerbach's Department Store - a type of job I had wanted and sought for because of my love for drawing. On May 4, 1944 I married a wonderful man, Mark John Bradshaw, in the Salt Lake Temple. Having just completed his LDS Mission in the Central States, he was drafted two months later into the U.S. Army and sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. He was made a Staff Sergeant in the Mechanized Cavalry. I was able to get work as an artist in a department store in the nearby town of Junction City while he received his basic army training. I have cherished memories of many special friends we made during those "army days" and with those we met in the small LDS Church Branch we attended there. When Mark shipped overseas to Italy in December 1944, I returned to Salt Lake City and secured a position as Layout Artist in the Advertising Dept. of ZCMI where I worked for three years. After the war and Mark's return home, we were blessed during the next 11 years with five delightful children: Judi (married John W. Morrell), Bonnie (formerly married to Glenn H. Robinson), Jonathan Dell (married An Redd), Jeffrey Mark (married Kathleen Marie Peterson), and Scott Bernard (married Linn Pinnock). Our life was busy, joyful, and challenging during those years, and our children have made us proud as we watched them complete their education and go on to make significant achievements in their chosen professions. Throughout that time, I continued doing freelance artwork for local department stores, dress shops, and fashion magazines. My husband and I served in many LDS ward and stake callings. I've been a Primary teacher and organist, Young Women Leader, Sunday School and Relief Society teacher, name extraction missionary, as well as serving in ward and stake Relief Society presidencies. The highlight of my church service was, however, the three foreign missions (Nigeria - 1980-81; Singapore, Malaysia, and India - 1984-86; Nigeria and Ghana - 1988-89) that I served for the church with my dear husband and companion Mark. In 1956 I became interested in another pursuit - genealogy - the search for my ancestral roots. Since that time, even until the present, family history work has been a driving force in my life and I have loved the research and temple service that accompanies this work. In addition, I served two years a volunteer in the Family History Library and five and a half years as a part-time missionary in the Ancestral File of the Family History Department of the Church, assisting with research on medieval family lines. Through this endeavor to find ancestral kin, I've come to know my family who preceded me on earth, and I eagerly anticipate meeting them face to face as I leave this earthly existence. Although I never really aspired to or worked toward an academic degree, I feel I am fairly well-educated, because of my life-long service in church callings, a constant study on many and varied subjects of interest, as well as travels to many different countries as a missionary and as a tourist. I am glad to have lived most of my life in the 20th century and to have had a taste of life in the 21st century, too. This is a wonderful time to live - and to die! My beloved husband and companion died on November 9, 1992, three years after the completion of our third church mission. I miss him greatly, but have had happy memories and a good family to comfort and sustain me in my "alone" years. Perhaps it can be said of us that our greatest contribution to this world is a family of two daughters, and three sons who are loving, honest, talented, productive, and highly respected in their fields of endeavor. They have taught their parents much about loving one another and family loyalty and togetherness. The hardest part of my passing is, of course, the separation from our children, 23 grandchildren, and 32 great-grandchildren. But, be assured, I will be looking forward to a future time and place when we shall meet and embrace one another as we did during our life here. After having lived a life full of love and faith, Elma passed away peacefully in her sleep on July 6, 2011. The family is grateful for the patient and loving care our mother received during her final year from the staff at Barton Creek and Emeritus, and for the support and kind expressions of friends and family members. Funeral Services will be held on July 15th at 11:00 a.m. in the Emigration Twenty First Ward, 680 2nd Ave., Salt Lake City. Friends may call on Thursday, July 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Russon Brothers Salt Lake Mortuary, 255 South 200 East, and prior to services at the Ward from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Online guestbook available at www.russonmortuary.com